Well Met by Moonlight
by TheBabeLebowski
Summary: When Hiccup and Astrid return to Berk with the others from the Edge for a day off, they find themselves clearing the debris from a fire instead of relaxing. Trying to keep their courtship a secret, they yearn for a moment alone. But it doesn't get easier when one of them gets badly burned. Oneshot, Hiccstrid, inspired by 'water', 'secret', and 'injury'.


_Hello, strangers! It's been almost half a year since Reunion ended, and I apologise for not being active. So here are some updates! I am trying to write some oneshots to pillow the wait for another longer fic (yay!). This one was inpired through Tumblr **(I have a Tumblr blog now that I am obsessed with. Come visit me and say hi! Same name!).** I asked for inspirational words and I'm hoping to write a couple based off these words. The words for this one are **'water', 'secret', and 'injury'**_. _I also listened to Loreena McKennitt's song **Moon Cradle** so check that out! I hope you guys are well and ready for some more HTTYD shenanigans. Much love! _

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**"Well Met by Moonlight"** by TheBabeLebowski

"So much for staying for a few hours," Astrid grumbled as she rubbed her sore hands. "You ask for a day off and what do you get? Five days _on_."

"It's not that bad," Hiccup retorted, rubbing his own palms with a blistered thumb. "It's just a few houses… and blisters. And slivers…"

Astrid groaned and retrieved her shovel, burying it into the ash of the foundation.

Ever since the dragons stopped burning down their houses, the people of Berk had more time to spare. Houses didn't need to be rebuilt as often, and even when there was an accident involving a hatchling, the waterworks system would deal with it in no time.

That was supposed to be enough. But when no one was around to deploy it one dry day, a small flame turned into a firestorm, taking down three houses with it. Hiccup and the rest of the group found themselves stuck with the task of clearing the debris while everyone else harvested trees in the forest.

The houses were almost completely gone. After the dragons tore the rest of the charred wood away, three pairs of dragon riders began clearing the ash, embers, and any other debris while the rest of the villagers built piles of new planks and logs next to the foundations. But even after a day or two, some portions of the houses were still smouldering. To avoid any lit embers – and since watering it down became too tedious after the twentieth water-run – everyone placed a cross of planks inside the house. Hiccup was able to walk through the ash with ease upon the wood. Astrid worked on one side of the plank while Hiccup took the other.

Hiccup watched Astrid work for a few seconds as she tossed the debris one scoop at a time into a wheelbarrow. Hiccup sighed and abandoned the task of soothing his damaged hands. He pulled a cloth over his mouth and grunted as he shoved his shovel into the ash. A plume of white and grey flittered up to his face, stinging his eyes, as the two worked side-by-side.

His back turned to her, Hiccup hoisted a large pile of debris into his shovel. He turned carefully and walked along the wooden path to the wheelbarrow, carefully spilling it on top of the rest of the debris. He stepped back and looked at it for a moment, inspecting the pile, before he put his shovel down. He grabbed the handles of it and wheeled it out of the house. Outside the patch of blackened earth, he pulled the cloth from his mouth and took a deep breath of clean air.

"I'll be right back," he called to Astrid.

"Okay," she replied, looking at him through the ash cloud she had just created. "There's a log here I can drag out."

"You sure?" Hiccup asked, looking at the log at her feet. The edge of it smouldered slightly, and he nodded towards it.

"Yeah, it'll be fine," she replied casually, giving it a kick. It rocked back and forth. "Looks heavier than it is."

She gave him a smile and rubbed the back of her soot-covered hand over her face. He almost dropped the wheelbarrow as she snuck him a wink – or maybe a twitch of the eye. Either way, the blackened patches upon her face enhanced the icy-blue colour of her eyes. Hiccup basked in her radiance, though any stranger would call the effect anything but.

Astrid was dressed in heavy leather pants to protect her legs from runaway embers up to her slender waist. Her worn, blue shirt hugged the rest of her body delicately, even though it was stained and torn and burnt in places. She left her pauldrons in her pack, and her shoulders along with most of the skin of her arms remained bare in the dissipating heat. And soot covered her everywhere. Her hands, her elbows, her face, the tips of her hair, all blackened by the damage, only made her more attractive. Even the gentle curves of her arm and back muscles were enough to make Hiccup's mouth turn as dry as the ash in his hands. And her hair, this morning in its intricate braid, was now tied to the top of her head. Messy golden strands framed her face, kissing her dirty cheekbones and tickling the corners of her lips.

He was staring, he noticed. And to his embarrassment, she had noticed as well.  
But this was not the first time the pair had taken a few seconds to indulge in teach other's company. It was hard enough with their secret meetings on the Edge after dusk, or their secret flights before dawn. Their quiet conversations in the dark that only stalled what they truly wanted. Every time they stared, another spark, another flame, threatened to topple the foundations of what they knew to open a new door to something else… something special. Something neither of them had experienced before.

"This rubble is _endless_!" Snotlout yelled.

Hiccup and Astrid broke away from each other's gaze, both trying to stifle a blushing grin while they resumed whatever they were doing with panicked vigour. Hiccup lifted the barrow and pushed it all the way to the cliffs where he could dump it. The walk wasn't particularly long, but it wasn't the closest, either. He welcomed the silence as he carried out his task, however. At the edge, he pushed the handles up. His previous thoughts lingered as he watched the ash blow away with the wind while the heavier debris bounced off the cliff-face and into the ocean below.

Toothless and the other dragons were just finishing up their break when Hiccup turned around. The Night Fury, still licking his chops clean of fish scales and slime, bounced in front of his rider and affectionately grabbed the wheelbarrow with one of his paws. It left Hiccup's grasp, and he laughed as Toothless played with it like a toy.

"Don't break that, I need it," Hiccup called. Toothless perked up, his fins in the air like a deer listening intently for something, before he slinked away from the contraption. He sat on his haunches between Hiccup and the house, waiting excitedly.

Hiccup sighed and winced. "I wish I could go flying, but I need to finish this."

Toothless cooed and snapped his wide eyes to the house where Astrid was working, her body obscured by Toothless'. He unfurled his wings immediately, but Hiccup waved his hands, practically jumping on Toothless to stop him. Toothless, back in play-mode, grabbed Hiccup and rolled with him down the hill. He pinned Hiccup to the ground, ready for a play fight, ready for anything besides sitting still for one more moment. But Hiccup wriggled free and gave Toothless' chin a scratch.

"I would let you help," Hiccup admitted, catching his breath and rubbing his sore hands once more, "but you'll send ash everywhere, and we don't want anyone getting sick, do we?"

Toothless hung his head and snorted, pouting.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Hiccup groaned, putting his hands on his hips. "That won't make anyone feel any –"

All of a sudden, there was a scream. Toothless and Hiccup both jumped, wrenching their bodies around towards the houses. And before Hiccup's body stopped turning, he was running alongside his dragon. He grabbed Toothless' reins, ignoring the state of his hands, and hoisted himself up. Toothless sprinted for the houses as Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins all raced from their worksites, running for Hiccup and Astrid's.

Hiccup made it there first. He leapt off Toothless and sprinted through where the doorframe should have been. Astrid was on the ground in the corner, desperately trying to push the log she had attempted to carry off of her. Hiccup didn't break his pace as he leapt through the debris and grabbed the log with his bare hands. Searing heat scorched his palms as he pulled it away from Astrid's arm. He hauled it to the side and dropped it, flapping his hands and grimacing as it turned to reveal hot embers beneath.

Snotlout took one look at the situation and left to grab a nearby trough, calling for Tuffnut to follow. Astrid rolled to her knees, buckled over. With more help available to them, Ruffnut helped Hiccup lift Astrid to her feet. She clutched her arm to her chest, her teeth clenched, her skin red, and tears cutting through the soot upon her cheeks.

She hissed through her teeth towards Hiccup, in too much pain to tell him what happened as the knuckles of the hand holding her injured arm turned white. Hiccup didn't hesitate. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her uninjured arm from her wrist, pulling it over his shoulder. He grabbed Toothless and pulled the two of them up. The dragon ran to Snotlout and Fishlegs, and they dropped the trough immediately. Hiccup jumped down, dragging Astrid with him. The two of them dropped to their knees and buried their arms into the cold water, gasping and sighing together as their burns were soothed upon contact. They looked at one another as they sank into the trough. Hiccup didn't dare take his eyes off her this time.

* * *

If there was any upside to this unfortunate event, it was Astrid and Hiccup didn't have to work. Correction, they weren't _able_ to work. Later that day, long after Gothi had wrapped Astrid's arms and Hiccup's hands, the two of them sat across from each other in the Meade Hall. They both sipped at their mead and picked away at their meal while everyone else bustled about with energetic conversation and drunken shenanigans. Stoick and Gobber had long since paid them a visit to check in with them and had moved onto the next interesting thing once Astrid and Hiccup told them what had happened.

Astrid had lost her footing upon the plank when she had tried to carry the log. It had fallen upon her body first, but she tried to shove it off herself. It landed in the crux of her arm. The thin, delicate skin of her wrist to her inner-elbow had been burned severely, but Hiccup had managed to pull it off her before irreparable damage maimed her. At least, that was what the healers thought. They wouldn't be able to tell until after she had healed.

Her arm slung to her dirty chest, she used her other hand to pick at some chicken meat. But she glared at the soot beneath her fingernails and dropped it. Hiccup watched her with dampened curiosity while his concern for her forced his attention from his own food.

"Is there something wrong with the food?" he asked quietly.

Astrid shook her head and drank some more mead. She ran her tongue over her teeth and grimaced. "All I can taste is soot and ash."

Hiccup laughed through his nostrils and nodded. "Me too."

Astrid gave him a look, glaring slightly, before she looked at her hand again. Then, she leaned forward so no one else could hear her say, "Follow me."

She downed the rest of her mead and left the table, walking towards the huge doors under the torchlight. Hiccup's heart quickened as he finished his own drink to stall. He left the table and followed her. Everyone was in the hall spare for a few stragglers, so no one noticed him catch up with her. Determination ebbed from her body as she marched straight down the path.

"Where are we going?" Hiccup asked, leaning towards her.

Instead of answering, she called for Stormfly. Her Nadder coo echoed through the empty houses until it was answered. Stormfly flew from a nearby perch and landed in front of the pair. Astrid jumped on first, using her good arm the best she could. Hiccup climbed up behind her. She grabbed one of his arms and wrapped it around her waist to secure him.

Stormfly took off into the darkness, and Astrid led her with the reins gripped in one hand. Hiccup's grip tightened around her waist as they passed the tree-line. It didn't take long for Hiccup to know where they were going, and it didn't take long for them to arrive there.

The moment Stormfly landed within the private walls of the cove, Astrid was off her back. Hiccup followed, but froze once the rising moon revealed what she was doing.

First, she removed her sling. 'Removed' would have been kind, but in actuality, she tore it from her body and slapped it upon the ground. Then, moving very carefully, she pulled her shirt over her head.

Hiccup's ears grew hotter than the embers that burned her. She unlaced her trousers and dropped them to her knees. She kicked them off along with her boots as Hiccup made a high-pitched squeak in his throat.

Astrid turned and caught his eye as she raised her hands to her hair. Poised under the gentle kiss of the moonlight, he could see her body in all its splendour: her muscles, her skin, the curve of her silhouette… all but interrupted when Astrid quickly said, "Join me if you want, but turn around first."

"W-what?" Hiccup breathed.

Astrid dropped her hands, suddenly worried. "Hiccup, if you don't want to –"

"No, no, this is fine, just – what?"

"Let's swim," she simply replied, desperate to scrub the soot from her.

Hiccup nodded, half-stunned, half-unwilling to tear his eyes away, before he finally turned away. He heard her fussing with her bindings as he took off his own clothes. By the time he made it to the laces of his pants, he heard her splashing into the water, squealing from the cold.

"Come on!" she beckoned through a shrill gasp.

"You have to turn around, too!" he replied, his fingers ready at the belt of his pants.

"I'm already turned around!" she called back. So, with a deep breath in his lungs, Hiccup took off his own trousers and stepped out of them. He covered himself with his bandaged hands and walked to the bank. He dipped his good foot in. It wasn't too cold, but it would be furiously refreshing. And thankfully, he was wearing one of his older prosthetics so he didn't mind wearing it in the water.

But he lingered at the edge, his hands still covering himself, as Astrid ran her hands over the surface of the water, her bare back glistening from the pale blue light. Her hair cascaded over the ripples of the water and the contours of her back. He couldn't see anything below her waist, but the thought of her back free from her bindings was enough to last him a lifetime of flutters.

She ducked into the water and ran her good hand through her hair, thoroughly wetting it.

"Are you coming in?" she asked.

Hiccup slipped into the water, hoping the splashing of the water against his dry skin would better inform her than the inevitable breaking of his voice. He sucked in a breath and ducked under entirely, the water snatching the breath out of his lungs as the tips of his hair disappeared. He jumped up immediately, gasping and shaking his head clear of water. He combed his hands through his hair and down his face, revelling in the rinse.

He pulled his hands away and contemplated his bandages.

"We can get them rewrapped," Astrid said suddenly. She had turned around, her body shrouded by the dark water. "Here."

She tossed Hiccup something, and it landed in the water next to him. It splashed more cold water up his side. He grabbed it and turned it over in his hands. Soap.

But when he tried to run it over his body, his hands ached, so he tossed it back with a wrinkled nose.

"You first," he said.

She grabbed the bar and ran it over her face, neck, combed her soapy fingers through her hair – the soot fell off her pale skin into the clear water with every brush of her hand. They were silent as she emerged cleaner than ever, and when she was finished, she dove under the water, rinsing off with a swim along the gravel.

When she emerged and rubbed her eyes dry, she offered the soap back to Hiccup.

"I'm good, but thanks," he tried to say, holding his hands up.

Astrid glared at him. "You're filthy."

"I know, but – hey, this could be a new thing. You know, add some more soot and I could be a Night Fury just like Toothless!"

Astrid looked at Hiccup's hands, her hair hugging her neck and shoulders. "Here, I can – would you like me to help you?"

The two of them slowed to a standstill, both looking at each other in the water, both on the verge of shivering but daring not to. And even though Hiccup preferred the more modest route, his discomfort from the grime betrayed him.

Astrid licked her lips, careful, and pushed back. "Come on."

Hiccup warily followed her, their trust the only thing pulling him in. They were deeper in the water now, and when standing straight, Astrid's body was hidden while Hiccup's shoulders remained. She hovered the soap over his chest and kept his gaze. Not daring to look down out of respect and fear of the unknown, she ran the bar over his chilled skin.

"You're good at this, have you ever done this before?" Hiccup quipped. Astrid scoffed and snorted.

"As if. You know I haven't."

She ran the bar up his neck, casually scrubbing it up and down.

"Do you think anyone noticed us leave?" she asked.

"I don't think anyone would be surprised at this point," Hiccup admitted. "I mean, it would make sense for us to want to go to bed early."

"Together?" Astrid dared to ask. She gave him a mischievous grin as he recollected himself. It helped once Astrid moved to one of his arms. "Maybe we're not being as secretive as we think we are."

"It's not like we're doing anything right now," Hiccup defended.

"We're naked," she stated.

"But we're not, you know –"

"Yeah, but we were going to," she interjected.

"What? We were?"

"Huh?" She stared at him, genuinely misunderstanding, but when Hiccup gave her a wink, she scowled at him and moved to his other arm. "And you know it."

Hiccup chuckled as she swam under his arm and to his back. She resumed her task with the back of his neck, working down. But she slowed and paused. And Hiccup lowered his head, deep in thought. He reached back and gingerly grabbed her wrists, guiding them beneath his arms and around his chest. Astrid floated closer, her cheek pressed against his shoulder and, mustered by a shaky breath, her breasts pressed to his back. The two of them stood there, a new step made, a new door opened, as their skin met and mingled for a moment.

"I'm really happy that you're alright," he murmured. Astrid squeezed his body with her arms. She nodded against his skin and cleared her throat. She ran her fingers along the bandages of one of his hands.

"I'm sorry about your hands," she replied quietly. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

Hiccup looked up to the moon as their fingers intertwined.

"And I'd do it again if I had to," he replied. He gave her another squeeze.

"It's a full moon," Astrid noted, a smile upon her voice. She placed her chin onto his shoulder, the two of them staring up with their faces pressed against each other's. "Remember the last time we were here with a moon like that?"

"I was just thinking about it," Hiccup replied, leaning his head against hers. "You punched me."

"You kidnapped me, so," Astrid sighed.

"But then you kissed me," Hiccup added, raising an eyebrow and leaning his head against hers even more. Astrid glanced over to him and snickered.

"Oh, I suppose you're expecting something then," she snorted. Hiccup pulled away and turned, resting his hands under the water upon her waist. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around the back of his neck. Hiccup gulped as Astrid gave another sly grin, and gave her shoulders a wiggle.

"Don't look down," she said quickly. Hiccup reflexively shot his gaze down, looking for danger, but only saw the peaks of her breasts, partially lit, only a hair away from his chest. He shot his gaze back up as Astrid laughed.

"I'm sorry, you said –" Hiccup stammered, a smile plastered on his face but his modesty flying out of his mouth. Astrid could stop laughing, her voice echoing through the cove like a lark's. "I didn't mean - not that I didn't like – gods, I –"

He stopped talking and gave Astrid a mock-frown, wrinkling his nose again before breaking out into another crooked smile. And as Astrid threatened to swim away, he grabbed her by the small of her back and placed his lips over hers.

Soft silence filled the cove as they kissed, their grips tightening around each other, tentative and timid. Their bandages, soaked in the cool, soothing water, would have to be changed later, but for now, they remained, teetering on the edge of something… new. Something special. And even though they stood among an expanse of fresh water, a spark illuminated into a flame that would remain the strongest of all. And they were more than willing to be burned by it.


End file.
